In addition to my myriad of other health problems, I have sleep apnea. It's not a surprise--it's a common health concern, and most people are undiagnosed. Which makes sense. It happens when you're asleep. You aren't going to know you stop breathing if you're asleep when it happens. I'm "lucky" in that I woke up several times when I stopped breathing, and was actually alert enough to realize I'd stopped breathing.
Sleep apnea is one of two things. The muscles in your throat relax so much that your airways become blocked (obstructive sleep apnea). This can also occur if there are physical problems with your airways, like a deviated septum. Or your brain stops sending the signal to your body to breathe, which is central sleep apnea. I suffer from both.
Sleep apnea is categorized as needing treatment if it occurs more than 5 times in one hour. Everyone stops breathing while they sleep sometimes. But past that 5 times threshold, you're categorized as having mild sleep apnea.
I stop breathing over 30 times an hour, which is categorized as severe sleep apnea. Considering that means I stop breathing every 2 minutes at a minimum, I can see why it's considered severe! As far as central sleep apnea goes, I only stopped breathing completely five times during the night due to my brain forgetting to tell my body to breathe. Not bad, considering.
Sleep apnea means that I don't sleep as deeply as my body needs--I transition from deep sleep to light sleep. It explains why I always feel so tired, no matter how long I'm in bed. With the migraines, that can be up to 20+ hours a day, depending on how bad the migraine is.
I did a home sleep study (horrible way to try and get a night's sleep, by the way. I was attached to a nasal measurer thingy, a blood oxygen thingy on my finger, a positional thingy around my chest, and a breathing thingy around my lower chest. Lotta thingies), which is what determined how many times a night I suffer sleep apnea. It was rather surprising to me, as I only woke up a couple of times a night not breathing. Over 30 times an hour?! Apparently that's common. You wake up so briefly that you don't even remember waking up in the morning.
When I did the sleep study test of the APAP machine (the child of the CPAP, apparently it's the new thing in sleep apnea machinery), I had the best nights of sleep ever. I don't think I've felt that refreshed in years.
An APAP machine blows a stream of air into your nose to keep your airways from closing. When it detects that your airways are closing, it increases the pressure of the air until the airways reopen. When you breathe out, it stops blowing air so that you can actually breathe out. It's pretty neat, even if it's anything but sexy.
My APAP came today. I swear, there are no less than ten booklets included with the machine! I feel like this is rocket science or something. There's a booklet for how to put together the face mask. A booklet for plugging in and turning on the APAP machine (my doctor already programmed it, from what they're telling me). An instructional DVD for the APAP, in addition to a user manual. It has a humidifier, so there's an instruction booklet for that, as well as a DVD. There's an instruction booklet on how often to replace your APAP supplies. There's an information booklet on sleep apnea. There are several warranty booklets for the various pieces of equipment. There's a general information and instruction booklet. And there are pamphlets and advertisements scattered throughout. There's also a couple of papers I'm supposed to sign, but I'm not sure where to turn them in...
I'm amazingly excited to have the machine--I've missed those few nights of decent sleep. However, the booklets are intimidating! I've gone through the mask booklet, the humidifier booklet, the general information and instruction booklet, and the APAP machine usage instructions. I haven't looked at a single DVD yet.
That reminds me. I need to get a note from my doctor to take it on the airplane. I'm sure it'll be fine, but I prefer to cover all bases.
Go go being an adult, and being excited for medical equipment! ...I miss childhood...
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